Car Seats and Strollers

Sugargirl1019

I know, I know. It is waaayy early to be thinking about this, but if you're like me, you will need all 9 months to make a decision. My mother-in-law sent me this website and I found the information really helpful. I didn't want to lose it because I waited until much later to post. This website has some great information about car seats and strollers plus reviews on them, and more.

Car Seats: https://www.lucieslist.com/baby-registry-basics/infant-car-seats/

Strollers: https://www.lucieslist.com/baby-registry-basics/baby-strollers/

If you have other resources that you found helpful, please share!

newmamaro

https://thecarseatlady.com 

and 

on Facebook: TheBabyGuyNYC

both have good reviews and resources 

uromys

@Newmamaro TheBabyGuyNYC is hands down my favorite! He's amazing! 

newmamaro

@uromys  Right! Love him. He was in my city like a month ago or so and I missed him! I was bummed. 

OliveP27

Car Seats For The Littles is one of my most trusted resources 

Toller

 

Toller

OliveP27 said:

Car Seats For The Littles is one of my most trusted resources 

I second this!! (Sorry learning to do this on my phone!)

PrettyPalomino

Is there such thing as a website that lists makes of compact cars to tell you what brands will fit in your backseat? I have a Hyundai Accent hatchback, it's fairly snug back there, wouldn't know how to shop for a car seat...

shara3333

Last time I was pregnant I loved the book baby bargains. I'm not really sure why it's called that. It really helps you I fire what you need and what's the best for your budget and gives things grades with the reasoning for each grade. For really everything baby/toddler related. I mean everything. 

Sugargirl1019

PrettyPalomino said:

Is there such thing as a website that lists makes of compact cars to tell you what brands will fit in your backseat? I have a Hyundai Accent hatchback, it's fairly snug back there, wouldn't know how to shop for a car seat...

I don't know of a specific list, but that Lucie's List does discuss what brand is the smallest and would fit in compact and sport cars (Cybex Aton 2/Q). I would look at that seat and then compare other car seats to it that you may prefer.

MamaWino

OliveP27 said:

Car Seats For The Littles is one of my most trusted resources 

Yes.  They are amazing and full of information. 

zubenescamali

@PrettyPalomino when DD1 was born we were able to fit the infant carrier (Chicco Keyfit, pretty standard size for an infant seat) in the backseat of DH's Hyundai Tiburon Coupe, when she outgrew that we moved to the Combi Coccoro convertible carseat.  it was a little difficult trying to get her in and out of a two door car, but the Coccoro has a very low profile and DH could still see out the back, and it didn't push his passenger seat up to the realm of uncomfortable.
a little different than your car, but if it fit in the Tiburon I bet it would fit in the Accent.

PensiveCrayon

@Sugargirl1019 I looooooove Lucie's List for everything baby info-related. Her humor is out of this world! Back in November, before we'd even started trying and I was just being anxious, I went through her entire site and set up a secret baby registry pinboard based on her recommendations.

babybluesnapdragon

I don't know if it's just the babies r us by me, or if they are all like this, but they let me try the display car seat in my vehicle before I bought it for DD

leksiL

zubenescamali said:

@PrettyPalomino when DD1 was born we were able to fit the infant carrier (Chicco Keyfit, pretty standard size for an infant seat) in the backseat of DH's Hyundai Tiburon Coupe, when she outgrew that we moved to the Combi Coccoro convertible carseat.  it was a little difficult trying to get her in and out of a two door car, but the Coccoro has a very low profile and DH could still see out the back, and it didn't push his passenger seat up to the realm of uncomfortable.
a little different than your car, but if it fit in the Tiburon I bet it would fit in the Accent.

I'm so glad to hear that others aren't getting rid of their small cars for baby. I just leased my new civic last fall and I don't want to exchange it! (Although, poor planning on my part since we also just bought a house and it would be good to have something to haul around wood and stuff for projects). 

jenlynne0624

A small compact seat is the Graco Contender/my ride 65. I have a 2 door hatchback Yaris and it fits in there beautifully with room to spare. I had a Britax b-safe in there prior for the infant seat and it also fit really well.


I third/fourth/whatever Car seats for the littles.

lalamomma

I love baby gizmo for stroller reviews (YouTube videos) and the book baby bargains for baby stuff.

I own a cybex Aton 2 and love it! My only complaint is the canopy which they changed for the Q. 

We just upgraded baby boy to a Chicco nextfit zip and love it too!
car seats for the littles is amazing! The Facebook page is helpful as well.

emisi

We have a Chicco Keyfit that I used with DS that we're going to reuse, it fit in DH's Mazda3, although it does make the passenger side go up further than is really comfortable.  Right before the baby is born I plan to turn DS front facing (he'll be about 3.5, I was hoping to go to 4 but there's really not enough room for two rear facing kiddos) and once the new kid has outgrown the bucket, I'll probably get a high-backed booster for DS and let the baby have his old convertibles.

I also kind of splurged on a stroller.  I figured since we're basically buying nothing new for this kid I would get a fancy dual stroller... I found a SMOKING deal on an Uppababy Vista.  Like $300 off a new one.  I was stoked.

PrettyPalomino

leksiL said:

zubenescamali said:

@PrettyPalomino when DD1 was born we were able to fit the infant carrier (Chicco Keyfit, pretty standard size for an infant seat) in the backseat of DH's Hyundai Tiburon Coupe, when she outgrew that we moved to the Combi Coccoro convertible carseat.  it was a little difficult trying to get her in and out of a two door car, but the Coccoro has a very low profile and DH could still see out the back, and it didn't push his passenger seat up to the realm of uncomfortable.
a little different than your car, but if it fit in the Tiburon I bet it would fit in the Accent.

I'm so glad to hear that others aren't getting rid of their small cars for baby. I just leased my new civic last fall and I don't want to exchange it! (Although, poor planning on my part since we also just bought a house and it would be good to have something to haul around wood and stuff for projects). 

The accent is part of our budget plan, sooo good on gas, we aren't ready to sacrifice savings for more leg room. Although you have a point! Would be nice to be able to lug stuff around. 

ToBeMiller1921

PrettyPalomino said:

Is there such thing as a website that lists makes of compact cars to tell you what brands will fit in your backseat? I have a Hyundai Accent hatchback, it's fairly snug back there, wouldn't know how to shop for a car seat...

If you join the Car seats for the kitties page on fb, you can ask and a car seat tech can help. Tell them your make and model of your car, and your budget. They will be able to help!

edit: hahahaha! I'm laughing at my stupid auto correct. Car Seat for the LITTLES! 

blessdtxas

Used Lucie's List for everything last time. I ended up with a britax infant carrier and a city mini stroller. I didn't love the infant carrier, but the citi mini gt is awesome! Highly recommend it!

dmontgo

Ok here's a question. We really like the Graco 4-Ever carseat because it grows with baby all the way up to 10 years. However, it doesn't come with a carrier. We were kind of avoiding them because they are so unweildy, but it when we got to talking about going out to eat or someplace, where would we put baby? The stroller we want isn't part of a travel system, so it's left us scratching our heads. We really love our choices as we got to try them out and they have excellent reviews, but a little curious of what other mamas do when they go to places where they have to set baby down.

We want to get a wearable carrier for the store or something...but yeah. What do you ladies do?

zubenescamali

@dmontgowe've sat out to dinner and just rolled the stroller up to the table. we used an infant carrier, but sometimes the sling + carseat takes up so much more room than just a compact stroller.  once baby can sit up well enough it's NBD to use the restaurant high chair, but that can be 6-8 months later.  otherwise I have either held baby during dinner or used a sling or wrap.  and learned to not spill food off my fork onto her head.  even when I have brought in the infant carseat, baby gets fussy and you end up holding her during dinner at some point!
also with the graco 4-ever, just make sure you consider it might expire before you get full use out of the backless booster.  not a deal breaker, since a backless booster will only run you about $30 later on once it does, but the 4-ever is not exactly forever, ykwim.

dmontgo

@zubenescamali Thank you for sharing your experience! We will probably use a sling if we go out until baby can sit up or be in a stroller. I'm relieved to know the car seat carrier isn't a "must" for still doing activities because I've seen a lot of people around here lugging them around everywhere and it truly looks very uncomfortable. I don't think that we'll use the Graco 4-Ever for 10 years realistically, but I like that we can save some money for a little while without buying a new piece of equipment super often. ^_^

We really like the GB X1 Urban Jogger -Volt, too. Am I wrong to be excited about it? It handles like a dream lol.

Edited for autocorrect =.=

MamaWino

@dmontgo I'm not a fan of infant carriers either, although I'll use one for this kiddo. I have a Chicco Keyfit from my older girls so it doesn't make sense to buy another convertible right now. I moved my oldest to a convertible around 7 months and my youngest at 4 months because I got so sick of carrying the infant seat. I'll probably end up leaving the seat in the car and wearing baby a lot this time, especially since I have two other little hands to hold!

ashleaf2018

I definitely plan on baby wearing for awhile before breaking out the stroller. A few of my friends baby-wear and say that it leaves them more hands free than the stroller, baby tends to fall asleep in the wrap or sling, and depending on your carry it makes it easier for bfing, which I plan to do, so FX that my body and baby booth cooperate with my bfing plans! Plus I don't want to lug around the infant car seat if I don't have to  

Kbchavez23

Considering I just had my baby in June, we bought the Chicco keyfit and bravo traveling system. LOVE IT!

Sugargirl1019

ashleaf2018 said:

I definitely plan on baby wearing for awhile before breaking out the stroller. A few of my friends baby-wear and say that it leaves them more hands free than the stroller, baby tends to fall asleep in the wrap or sling, and depending on your carry it makes it easier for bfing, which I plan to do, so FX that my body and baby booth cooperate with my bfing plans! Plus I don't want to lug around the infant car seat if I don't have to  

I'm so interested in baby-wearing! There's a store nearby that does classes and private consultations for wraps. I need to do this!

Mamax2

ToBeMiller1921 said:

PrettyPalomino said:

Is there such thing as a website that lists makes of compact cars to tell you what brands will fit in your backseat? I have a Hyundai Accent hatchback, it's fairly snug back there, wouldn't know how to shop for a car seat...

If you join the Car seats for the kitties page on fb, you can ask and a car seat tech can help. Tell them your make and model of your car, and your budget. They will be able to help!

edit: hahahaha! I'm laughing at my stupid auto correct. Car Seat for the LITTLES! 

I ended up doing this last night and got some great advice! Thank you for this tip!

lalamomma

I love carrying in my Tula, but I don't like to baby wear when I'm eating. Just personal preference. It makes me annoyed. 

Im not the most cuddly person and get "touched out" but my Tula was a life saver with DS. My husband was gone for work most of the first 6 months and I traveled with my infant son and my 4 year old DD to Vegas by myself. I could never have done it with such ease (not a single cry on either airplane) if I didn't have my Tula. That thing is amazing. He always sleeps! 

lalamomma

@Kbchavez23 my DS was a June baby too!!!! 

jenlynne0624

Baby wearing ftw. I loved my  Moby when he was a squish, though I think I want a ring sling this time since it will be faster than wrapping a newb and wrangling a toddler. Ergo for a few months until he is long enough for the Tula after that. I miss wearing ds right now, but with my nausea the thought of t he belt pushing on my belly makes me want to gag.

princesslockness

lalamomma said:

I love carrying in my Tula, but I don't like to baby wear when I'm eating. Just personal preference. It makes me annoyed. 

Same here! I found once L was big enough for an ergo I could strap it to a chair, and he 'sitting' at the table and was happy. Plus I didn't have to haul everything/change carriers.